Scott Ruggels

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/suicide-squad-james-gunn-harley-quinn-dc-1234996289/ James Gunn on the future of DC movies.

Numbers for The Suicide Squad. https://apple.news/A06tBsSVHRei4CpWQq7isDw

Can we please move the Black Widow Discussions back to the Marvel Thread, please? So I watched The Suicide Squad on HBO Max. I enjoyed it. It was a satisfying movie from 2014, and I thought the large Ensemble cast was handled well. Good effects, great stunts. and was definitely a Comic Book movie. The gore did not bother me, but i definitely enjoyed the darkly comic tone. IT's not doing well in the box office, but then all this Delta Variant talk in the media is making my neighbors and the guy i usually go to the movies with fearful and paranoid. (even though most of my neighbors are vaccinated. I am also of the opinion that "Day and Date" releases on streaming services may not be such a good idea. Still it may be, that the habit of going to theaters in crowds has been broken by this plague, and that Hollywood is going to have to think about moving back to 1960's and 70's level budgets, because the problem with the movies as released now, is that they were greenlit with budgets, not expecting COVID, and those budgets are doubles if you figure in the marketing Budget. So they are making money, but they are not making "Enough" money to "tentpole" the studios. IT's not just superheroes, but maybe all theatrical genre entertainment may fade away to nearly nothing (With some moving to TV if it is a popular enough property, and if they don't ruin it with intersectionalism.

Well I think that The sharp decline in Box office has given Marvel pause, literally: https://cosmicbook.news/spider-man-no-way-home-venom-2-shang-chi-delayed Shang Chi, Spiderman, Venom 2, may be delayed.

Oh... Where to start. how about these links: https://boundingintocomics.com/2020/10/12/industry-insiders-corroborate-rumors-of-robert-pattinsons-difficulties-on-set-of-the-batman/ https://cosmicbook.news/robert-pattinson-fakes-coronavirus-batman-trouble https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/robert-pattinson-rumored-causing-big-problems-batman/ https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/movie-tv/robert-pattinson-and-zoe-kravitz-apparently-had-sex-on-the-hood-of-the-batmobile/95289763/page-3/ So yeah, I feel really bad for the Director of this film, because not only COVID restrictions, but having a tempermental and immature star on the set.

Now we see why the Farmer and his daughter loved The Goblin Slayer enough to let he live there and only do a few chores, plus is regular job to stay there.

Looking forward to "New Guy", and Dune, but not much besides that. as it is, COVID has slowed production down dramatically. Dragging this back on topic, I have lost interest in The Batman, earing how the star has sabotaged it,

That would be true , if money was the priority. It's not as important as proving they are part of the "in crowd" in Hollywood. But, as the numbers dip, and the marketing fails, they blame it on COVID. some of them are taking notice. Star Wars underperformed in the Box office, and that was before COVID, and I believe Marvel has peaked with Avengers: End Game, and is on a decline. While I do want to see Shang Chi, I don't think it's box office will be as good as Black Widow, and I think The Eternals will do even less. (The Eternals Trailer looked awful). In general the quality of the writing, and the faithfulness to the source material, if not actually basing the scripts on earlier comics material, would slow the decline to a more natural curve, so Comic Book movies would gracefully decline, like Westerns, rather than fall precipitously. Star Trek, even in it's early days was allegorical, rather than being on the nose. And while being liberal in it's view points, presented both sides, and never sacrificed entertainment for the message. It was thoughtful, and in most cases logical in it's plot progression, and was in general Optimistic about the future. It was a show about adventure. The creator of that video, is well known to be negatively critical of the Current Alex Kurtzman version of Star Trek, and has been vocal about how bad he sees it to be. He will include clips of it. Basically in his mind it's been ruined by contemporary identity politics, and "The Rule of Cool". Rather than the sober, generally optimistic, and collegial tone of The previous shows.

This would mean they are ahead of the curve in negotiations, when the contract period ends in Hollywood, and the talent strikes begin. I am going to be verrry interested in how the writer's negotiations proceed.

Some Girls, Yes, but most girls probably could not care less. It's about averages, and finding a property that resonates with the average boy or girl. Most boys aren't that interested Jane Austen, at least until they find a girlfriend who loves it. On average, boys and girls have different interests in entertainment. You bring up Pathfinder, and D&D. Those are gaining popularity with women and girls, but it's because of the roleplay element that they became interesting to them, Before that when it was miniatures wargaming, they had no interest. Historical Wargaming is still primarily a male hobby. In general I think that this commenter has a better explanation than I can give. Fandoms tend not to expand much after their initial growth, and tend to die off with their generational cohort. Not a lot of fan activity for The Shadow, or The Lone Ranger, any more. There are exceptions, like the afore mentioned jane Austen, but books are much different (being a product of a singular imagination). Other than D&D, and Traveller, I don't expect a lot of new blood into old RPG systems.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-suicide-squad-box-office-friday-1234993882/ The suicide squad, is apparently getting good reviews, from both critics, and fans. A few friends saw it, and recommended it, so I may go and see it soon.

Kevin Feige “embarrassed” over Disney’s response to Scarlett Johansson suit https://www.salon.com/2021/08/04/kevin-feige-embarrassed-over-disneys-response-to-scarlett-johansson-suit_partner-2/ It looks like the profits from streaming the films goes to studio executives only, and those used to back end bonuses are unhappy. There may be strikes over this in the near future b

Depending on the property, absolutely. Something meant for boys should stay that way. There are shoes for girls too, and they have a right to succeed and stay that way as well.

Kind of belittling of the writing work of Larry DiTillio, a gaming buddy of Mike Pondsmith. He didn’t like me, but I did not hold that against him as he was a very good television writer. He wrote many of the MOTU scripts and kept the tone and focus through the show. In general, though, Inwasnt a fan of the show, as I was too old for it. I watched it occasionally, as an aspiring animator. It wasn’t badly done, just not my thing. However Inam very sympathetic to the old fans, as one more primarily aimed at boys, and the hero’s journey, was once again turned into a female empowerment story, where the men are diminished or sidelined. Just like Dr. Who, and recent Star Wars, among others. So tired of the current year(s).

Or hell, look through some of the threads on Reddit. The 7 Deadly Sins show up there regularly. The only one that doesn’t seem as harmful to others is gluttony.

If think it would be sociopathy, addiction to power, and a dose of sadism? What is the term for the mental illness where, you are the only person in the universe, and everyone else is there to serve them?

I got it to work by just copying the *.exe across, and it came up without needing the password. The problem for me is how to print it? Thank you, but no, this is for 3rd-4th edition Hero, and its sweet sweet and tidy three column character sheet.

...and this is what lead to difficulties in Season Two of the Mandalorian. Pedro Pascal, who I think is a pretty good actor, was tired of wearing the mask all the time, to the point he was losing enthusiasm for the role. Compromises were made. It's what makes me admire Karl Urban all the more in Dredd, as he committed to the bit, and never took the helmet off. (Really good portrayal of Dredd, too, by the way.) It is looking like The Batman, may be a disaster, but mostly because of antics and sabotage by it's star. Now I wish someone would explain that keeping the mask on "outside of "headquarters", means it's easier to conceal stunt performers, and therefore reducing the budget slightly as they don't need as much CG. CG Ain't cheap, as my price sheet displays

Tenet was an espionage thriller that was released last year. Because of COVID, the film had a spotty theatrical release just before full lockdown reand was displayed on streaming services. Directed by Christopher Nolan of Inception fame, and the good Batman films, people expected a movie full of mind expanding concepts and unique action. Mostly true, but heavily marred by a sound mix that obscured dialogue, and sounded muddy elsewhere. Most reviews complained about it. It’s the one film by that Director I was not eager to see.

This sounds/feels a lot like how we did our Danger International campaigns ran in the late 80’s. The only difference back then was hit locations, and I think no skill level caps. But I’d definitely play in this game.

Sound tends to be what separates the pros from the amateurs. I think Tennent is the example of when Hollywood messes up.

I don't know how many folks out there are familiar with SCP (Secure, Contain, Protect) fandom out there. starting first as creepypasta on Reddit, it has grown into all sorts of activities. Recently they released a near professional fan film called Overlord, and i feel this could be an inspiration for a horror based, or X-Files flavored Dark Champions game. Take a look.

Well now there are rumors of another Writer's strike soon, which will slow production again. But I can see why this time, because in a previous incident, they had to fire their representation, other than the Writer's guild, and that resulted in problems with Television productions, which are growing (i.e. non writers becoming show-runners, and directors starting to push back against the writers, when Television had alwas been a writer's medium. (Films, not so much) Having an unqualified executive producer run a TV show is a recipe for disaster. ..and be replaced by Miles Morales. I have no problem with Miles Morales as a character, provided he has a good writer, but, killing off Peter Parker because he4's "Just another white male superhero", will have me boycotting Marvel after that.

Especially Alan Dean Foster as well

Depends on the character. Some, like those in the D&D game, which I don’t invest a lot because they could die in first level, and after that the background fills in, often through improvisation. ForHero the backgrounds are fairly involved.